The Devil's Table ( or ''Salzwooger Teufelstisch'') of Salzwoog, in the municipality of

Lemberg Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

, is a striking

mushroom rock A mushroom rock, also called rock pedestal, or a pedestal rock, is a naturally occurring rock whose shape, as its name implies, resembles a mushroom. The rocks are deformed in a number of different ways: by erosion and weathering, glacial action ...

in the German part of the

Wasgau The Wasgau (, ) is a France, Franco-Germany, German Mountain range, hill range in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the French departments of France, departments of Bas-Rhin and Moselle (department), Moselle. It is formed from the south ...

that covers the southern part of the

Palatinate Forest The Palatinate Forest (; ), sometimes also called the Palatine Forest, is a List of landscapes in Rhineland-Palatinate, low-mountain region in southwestern Germany, located in the Palatinate (region), Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatina ...

in the state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

. The

rock formation A rock formation is an isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock (geology), rock outcrop. Rock formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock. The term ''rock Geological formation, formation ...

lies 5 km southwest of the largest and far better known Devil's Table of Hinterweidenthal, which also has a more impressive "table shape".

Geography

The rock is located at an elevation of on the northwest slopes of the wooded western spur of the Bichtenberg hill (400 m). To the north are the water meadows of the Salzbach stream, which flows from west to east here and is a right-hand tributary of the Wieslauter. Also to the north is the state road, the ''

Landesstraße ''Landesstraßen'' (singular: ''Landesstraße'' ) are roads in Germany and Austria that are, as a rule, the responsibility of the respective German or Austrian federal state. The term may therefore be translated as "state road". They are road ...

'' 486, which runs from Lemberg via Salzwoog to Hinterweidenthal. The Salzwoog Devil's Table is accessible from the valley of Salzwoog on a narrow footpath which branches off the trail to

Dahn Dahn () is a municipality in the Südwestpfalz district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated in the Palatinate Forest, approximately 15 km southeast of Pirmasens, and 25 km west of Landau. It is part of the ''Verbandsgemei ...

and climbs through a height of about 80 metres. Above the rock is a rest area which offer a panoramic view over the Salzbach water meadows.

Geology

Like its "larger brother" at Hinterweidenthal, the Devil's Table of Salzwoog is a

bunter sandstone The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsands ...

rock formation which resembles a pedestal table. As a result or

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

the surrounding softer surface material was carried away, whilst the hard rock core remained standing. This has left an oversized "table top" perched diagonally over an equally massive "pedestal". In the

Dahner Felsenland The Dahner Felsenland, also referred to as the Dahn Rockland, is a landscape in the county of Südwestpfalz in the Germany, German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is located in the middle section of the Wasgau, which in turn forms the ...

, as the region to the east is called, these types of unusually shaped rocks are very common.

Tourism

The rock is the destination of a circular walk in the Palatinate Hiking Portal (''Wanderportals Pfalz'').

References

{{Coord, 49, 9, 37.69, N, 7, 42, 16.13, E, type:landmark_region:DE-RP, display=title Rock formations of Rhineland-Palatinate Geography of the Palatinate (region)